Office of the Historian

760F.62/1333a: Circular telegram

The Secretary of State to the Officers in Charge of American Diplomatic Missions86

Washington, September 27, 1938—3 p.m.

Please call without delay on the Minister of Foreign Affairs or in his absence on the appropriate official, and express the opinion of this Government that the situation in Europe is today so critical, and the [Page 678] consequences of war would be so disastrous, that no step should be overlooked or omitted that might possibly contribute to the maintenance of peace. The President of the United States has already sent an urgent appeal to the Chancellor of the German Reich, the President of Czechoslovakia, and the Prime Ministers of Great Britain and France urging the importance of keeping negotiations alive and seeking a just settlement of the dispute through peaceful means. If the Chief of State or the Government to which you are accredited were at once to send a comparable message to Germany and Czechoslovakia, emphasizing in his own words the supreme importance of foregoing the use of force in settling the dispute now at issue, we feel that the cumulative effect of such an expression of opinion might possibly even at this late date influence the course of events and contribute to the preservation of peace in Europe. Please make it clear that this suggestion on our part does not in any way imply any opinion as to the points of the dispute at issue.

If the Government to which you are accredited should already have taken such action please express appropriately and with real appreciation of the step taken, the belief of this Government in the cumulative value of this type of international appeal.

[Here follows text of President Roosevelt’s appeal of September 26, printed on page 657, for inclusion only in telegrams to Missions that had not received the appeal.]

Hull

  1. Marginal note on the original telegram: “OK. FDR.”

    This telegram was sent to all Missions except Czechoslovakia, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, such American Republics as had already taken the action requested herein, and Spain. Telegram. No. 463, September 27, 5 p.m., to the Embassy in Spain (temporarily located at Barcelona) repeated this telegram and added: “Inasmuch as the Spanish Government might find it inappropriate for us to suggest that it make an appeal to Berlin, it will be sufficient for you to merely inform the Minister of State of what we have done.” (760F.62/1238h)

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